The women’s blues have endured a mixed bag of fairly tight affairs so far this season, with wins against the likes of Coventry and Leicester coming with disappointing results like the 4-point loss away at Loughborough earlier this month.

This week, however, all focus was on the conference cup, as a big clash against UEA awaited the blues. And on this occasion, Cambridge turned up the heat in an emphatic way, earning a dominant 86-33 win against their largely stumped opponents.

Feel like setting the tone for a cup game? Take a page out of Selma Vangstein’s book, who scored a fastbreak layup just seconds after the opening tip-off, and a quick three-pointer coming off a steal on defence. What followed was a 10-minute quarter of classy Cambridge dominance, with everyone playing their part on both sides of the ball.

The key to this early Cambridge success was defence and rebounding, with Elizabeth Neri and Faye Parker running the show on the glass and in the post. A couple of blocks from the pair of them and some strong presence when rebounding on both sides of the court struck fear into East Anglia’s rim protectors. Not only did this limit UEA to just one bucket in the whole quarter, but it opened the floodgates for Cambridge to make it rain from behind the arc.

“No signs of mercy seemed to be present”

The confidence of this blues side was abundantly clear, with three-point attempts coming one after the other in quick succession. Plenty of them were successful, yet Cambridge even managed to turn the ones that weren’t into points, with aggressive offensive rebounding leading to hard-earned second chance points that continue to stack up.

UAE came out in the second quarter desperately trying to spark some life into their squad, with vocal chants from the bench leading to some more inspired basketball on their end. Yet it never truly felt like they’d get back into this game, as each spell of offensive success was matched with even more scoring prowess from the blues.

First-year guard Phoenix Sims checked into the game and made an instant impact, contributing to three scores in quick succession: a finish down low coming off an offensive rebound, a neat fastbreak assist, and a smooth mid-range jump shot. The Blues’ defence then tightened up a bit, and all parts of the court were under Cambridge control for the rest of the half. Safe to say they were cruising, as they went into their half-time huddle up 51-9.

One thing you’ll notice about this blues team is that they like to start strong, and they did just that when they came back out for the second half. No signs of mercy seemed to be present as Faye Parker and Adeola Amure each hit three-pointers straight out the gate, with Amure adding to her tally by banking in a mid-range shot shortly after.

“Each piece of the strikingly impressive Cambridge puzzle came together”

The rebounding masterclass continued, with Elizabeth Neri and Lucy Payne laughing to themselves after they each had multiple attempts at put-back layups coming off of relentless attempts at second-chance points – eventually the ball met the net, a testament to Cambridge’s ability to earn their own luck throughout the evening. 

As the quarter came to a close, another short positive spell came for East Anglia. Some fast break opportunities were converted, but the blues bounced back with continued domination on offence to keep the scoring gap where it had been for the whole evening.

The fourth quarter starts and, once again, Cambridge come out swinging. Faye parker added two more big blocks to her tally, one for each opening minute of the quarter, and Athena Oliver matched this defensive aggression with a steal and fastbreak layup.

East Anglia answered back with a strong finish through contact down the other end, garnering an increasingly rare cheer from the UEA bench. Yet the excitement quickly wore off for the visitor’s as the free-throw to convert the play was missed and another glance up at the scoreboard revealed a 54-point gap.

To end the game, each piece of the strikingly impressive Cambridge puzzle came together. Malin Schlode got involved in the scoring action with a clean jump shot to counteract some UEA success from the free-throw line, and some nice passing moves gave Sims, Parker, and Neri some more scoring success.

As the final buzzer echoed across the University Sports Centre, it was all smiles for Cambridge. A breeze to start their cup campaign, and a well-earned return to the win column. As the winner of Birmingham vs Aston awaits in the next round, the women’s Blues will be very hard to beat if they continue to match this tempo.